While the mainstream media obsesses over the possibility of gun control in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy, a new study puts such incidents, and the idea of anti-Second Amendment legislation, into stark context.

Research published in USA Today[2] stemming from FBI data, reveals that over a five year period ranging from 2006 to 2010, mass killings accounted for only a tiny fraction of homicides, less than 1% to be precise.

The research found that during that time, there were 156 incidents in which four or more people were killed – the classification of a mass killing.

The study notes that guns were not even involved in a third of those incidents, and that lone gunmen were to blame less than half of the time. The data also reveals that where guns were involved in mass killings, handguns were the far more likely weapon of choice.

Means of death in many of the incidents ranged from fire, to knives or blunt objects. In many incidents, the victims were known to the killers and were targeted, rather than being strangers in the wrong place at the wrong time.

In total, the attacks killed 774 people, including at least 161 young children. These numbers are still tragic, and while any deaths, particularly homicides, and particularly mass homicides, are abhorrent – the figures clearly do not represent an epidemic of violent killing using firearms.

To put the figures into context, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention records show that more people died from migraines, falling out of chairs and sunstroke than were murdered by mass killers during this time.

Grant Duwe, director of research at the Minnesota Department of Corrections, and an expert in mass murders told USA Today that such incidents have also become less common since the mid-1990s.

Clearly, such simple and cursory research provides a reminder in the face of media promulgated panic, that the majority of the time, America is a perfectly safe country to live in. Factor in the notion that of the mass shootings that do take place, many lives may have been spared had the shooter encountered responsible armed Americans.

When it comes to schools, there are hundreds across the country that have taken measures to responsibly endure the safety of children by extensively training teachers to carry concealed weapons[3] and react to crisis situations. Such programs are subject to strict oversight, and the individuals authorized to carry firearms are subject to thorough and rigorous background checks.

Those who refuse to acknowledge these facts and continue to blindly push for stripping away at the cornerstones of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are either woefully myopic or completely politically driven individuals pursuing a very specific Anti-Second Amendment agenda.

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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com[6], and Prisonplanet.com[1]. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.